HERIAN News

Nationwide Building Society has teamed up with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to launch the Nationwide Community and Heritage Awards 2008, inviting the public to nominate people or groups who deserve recognition for community or voluntary work that has made a real difference to people's lives.

Nominations for the very best and most inspirational volunteers in the UK can be made from today, for either:

• Community Champion – recognition for those who have made an impact in their local community.

• Heritage Hero – recognition for those who have volunteered to become involved in saving a part of their heritage and sharing it with others.

The awards were previously known as the Nationwide Awards for Voluntary Endeavour (NAVE) and had a very successful ten year history recognising over 13,000 people from across the country. The new Nationwide and HLF partnership will enable more unsung heroes to be recognised for their tremendous efforts as volunteers.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “Volunteers make a difference every day to life in our communities and they are hugely important to the nation as a whole. These awards will celebrate the contribution of those everyday heroes who do so much for our national life and I congratulate them all for what they have done.”

Michelle Leighton, Nationwide's community & environmental affairs manager, said: “Nationwide is immensely proud of the strong links it has with local communities. There are many people who volunteer their time on a regular basis to help support others. If you know of anyone who deserves recognition for their volunteering please make sure you nominate them. Together with the Heritage Lottery Fund we want to celebrate the efforts of these dedicated volunteers whilst widening the scope of these already successful awards.”

Stephen Boyce, HLF's deputy director of operations, said: “Volunteers are particularly vital to the heritage sector and well over half of the 26,000 projects we have supported just could not have happened without them. Our research tells us that in just two years we funded projects involving 75,000 volunteers, who together gave over one million hours of their time to the UK's heritage.”

2007's winner of the individual adult award, Jane Plumb, said: “I was delighted to be chosen as the overall winner. As chairman of the Group B Strep Support charity I spend much of my time counselling pregnant women and families who are affected by Group B Streptococcal infection. We now have over 600 members so the money I have been awarded will go a long way to helping even more families and to increase the current levels of support further.”

Start nominating now:

Nomination forms can be found online at www.nationwide.co.uk and www.hlf.org.uk from today. Leaflets and nomination forms will be available from Monday 25 February from local Nationwide Building Society branches, HLF outlets, public libraries and via local newspapers. The closing date for nominations is Monday 28 April 2008. A series of regional events for short-listed nominations will be taking place up and down the country at a variety of heritage venues. The final will take place in London during November 2008.